to those of
our own in the same class of society. No sooner have they been fairly
introduced to American and European civilization than they have taken a
stride, of four or five centuries at a single leap, from feudalism in
its most ultra form to constitutional government. When an American
squadron opened the port of Yokohama, in 1853, to the commerce of the
world, it also opened that hermetically sealed land to the introduction
of progressive ideas; and though, unfortunately, the elements of
civilization which are most readily assimilated are not always the most
beneficial, still, the result, taken as a whole, has been worthy of the
admiration of the world at large.

When we speak of the progress of the Japanese as a nation, we must not
forget that the national records of the country date from nearly seven
hundred years before the time of Christ on earth, and that a regular
succession of Mikados, in lineal descent from the founders of their
dynasty and race, has since that remote date been carefully preserved.
Taking the Western Powers as a model, the Japanese have not failed to
emulate them in nearly all the prominent features of civilization,
promptly furnishing themselves with rifled cannon and torpedo boats,
with newspapers and a national debt. As we have remarked, the army and
civil officers have long since adopted the American costume. The
railroad and the telegraph, too much of an innovation for the more
pretentious Chinese, are quite domesticated in Japan. But still it is
really to be hoped that the progressive spirit, so apparent in the
policy of the Mikado and his advisers, may not quite obliterate all
traces of the antique and picturesque customs of a country so peculiar
and original.

CHAPTER IV.

Sail for Hong Kong.--Ocean Storms.--Sunset at Sea.--A
Water-Spout.--Arrival in China.--Typhoon Bay.--Manners and
Customs.--In and about Hong Kong.--Public Buildings.--Voyage up the
Pearl River.--City of Canton.--Strangest of Strange Cities.--Opium
Dens.--Temple of Honan.--The Worship of Swine.--Praying with a
Fan.--Local Peculiarities.--Half Round the World.--Singapore.--A
Tiger Hunt.--Burial at Sea.--Penang.--The Wonderful Palm.

We sailed from Nagasaki early on the morning of November 29th, in the
same steamship, the Nugata Maru, which had brought us from Kobe, being
now bound for Hong Kong, through the Yellow and China Seas, a distance
of eleven hundred miles. The